Industry News

For borrowers with less-than-pristine credit, obtaining a mortgage remained difficult in 2014. We estimated last spring that 4 million more loans would have been made between 2009 and 2013 if credit standards had been similar to 2001’s reasonable levels. Using new 2014 data, we have now determined that an additional 1.2 million loans were missing in 2014, bringing the total to 5.2 million missing loans between 2009 and 2014.

With the latest numbers on existing- and new-home sales from the National Association of Realtors®, we can now close the books on 2015. And quite a year it’s been! As we’d expected, 2015 produced major growth and some big-time milestones in housing’s recovery.

When young renters Mark and Sylvia decided to make the transition from tenant-life to homeownership, they had a fairly good idea that past credit indiscretions would make it difficult for them to qualify for a mortgage…Discouraged by the prospect of having to postpone their purchase, the couple began exploring alternative ways to buy their first home.

The Federal Reserve’s expected announcement of a rate increase on Wednesday has big implications for prospective home buyers and sellers, but experts have four words for anyone who’s feeling that they need to act immediately: Don’t do anything rash!

Although only half of surveyed households believe the economy is currently improving, nearly all young renters eventually want to buy a home, and a convincing majority still view homeownership as part of their American Dream, according to a new quarterly consumer survey released today by the National Association of Realtors®.

Americans borrow money to finance homes, cars, consumer products, and college educations. Borrowing at the right time for the right purpose can put families on the path to financial stability, but going into debt can also create financial peril. To understand more about how Americans use debt throughout their lifetime, we recently examined the credit records over a five-year period on a random sample of more than 5 million consumers.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is getting closer to moving over 4 percent, as mortgage rates climb for the second week in a row. Freddie Mac reports that fixed-rate mortgages are rising in anticipation of a possible rate increase by the Federal Reserve and a recent strong jobs report.

Home prices climbed in 87 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas in the third quarter, with gains nationwide slowing to a healthier pace, the National Association of Realtors said.

The median price of an existing single-family home rose from a year earlier in 154 of the 178 areas measured, the group said in a report Thursday. In the second quarter, 93 percent of metropolitan areas had price increases.

The Housing Finance Policy Center’s latest credit availability index (HCAI) shows that mortgage credit availability dipped slightly to 5.3 in the second quarter of 2015, down from 5.5 in the previous quarter. Availability still remains above the low of 4.6 found in the third quarter of 2013.

The HCAI measures the percentage of purchase loans that are likely to default—that is, go unpaid for more than 90 days past their due date. A lower HCAI indicates that lenders are unwilling to tolerate defaults and are imposing tighter lending standards, making it harder to get a loan. A higher HCAI indicates that lenders are willing to tolerate defaults and are taking more risks, making it easier to get a loan…